2017-06-05T06:59:25+02:00http://philippetring.fr/Octopress2017-06-05T06:25:21+02:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2017/06/05/we-are-artists<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/we-are-artists.jpg"></p>
<p>Our culture likes to think binary. We created Computer as a replica of our way of thinking with 0 and 1 being at the core of every sequence that brings life to a machine. One of the ways we like to identify is by saying &ldquo;I’m a logical person&rdquo; or &ldquo;I am an artistic person”.</p>
<p>But there was always something wrong with this distinction in my mind. As a developer I see myself as someone who loves theory and proof. Show me evidences or what you say is pure bullshit. I neglected any woohoo “spiritualism” and look down to the irrational emotional reaction. As time goes this line started to blur in some aspects of my life. Things slowly became less and less black and white and more and more grey.</p>
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<p>In martial arts I first come in as someone who wanted results. Either a strike worked or didn’t, a workout made me sweat and strong or was pointless. But now I love to train pointless move, flip, cartwheel, high kick, articulations and traditional form. I see grace and play through them, they are not black and white but full of colours while I change the ways I play with each material. What happens if I balance my weight from the left side to the right side? What my structure looks like? Is it unconformable? Can I make it conformable? No wonder some people go by the name martial artists.</p>
<p>As developers we dive deep into the unknown (code) to make sense of what was illogical making assumptions and theory about the “why&#8221; it is that way. We create theory and explore, then we imagine solutions and start creating. Shaping what was in our heads to make it &ldquo;real&rdquo;.</p>
<p>Can you see the story repeating itself as a painter? We see a landscape and interpret it in a way. We find out why and beauty in this view. But this interpretation is a unique assumption as each eye don’t focus on the same thing. We then reshape what we think we see and start painting, creating this unique piece. Making it “real&#8221;</p>
<p>We find ourselves so different from each other but we forget to see what makes us so much the same, instead of building connections we focus on differences. &ldquo;I am X”, &#8220;you are Y&rdquo; and forget the most important part of the sentence &ldquo;we are Z&rdquo;.</p>
<p>We are artists, we develop, grow, learn and flourish. We have something unique (perhaps several unique things over the course of our short life) to express, each of us in our fields. This field is the process of becoming oneself, our highest contribution, of becoming an artist.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture was taken in Fontainebleau during a Movnat session hold by <a href="http://www.mouvement-naturel-paris.com/">Mouvement Naturel Paris</a>. Not sure if I&rsquo;m being artistic there, but definitely I&rsquo;m a monkey 😂</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/Ldhzi4dIXXo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2017/06/05/we-are-artists/2016-12-08T05:55:19+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/12/08/on-sharing<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/on-sharing.jpg"></p>
<p>There are different types of experiences.</p>
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<p>There are certain experiences that cannot be shared to people like the the act to love.</p>
<p>And certain experiences that can only be shared with someone like love.</p>
<p>And finally there are experiences that can be great alone but with the right person would be FAB-ULOUS.</p>
<p>Thank to those people in my life who make good experiences great.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is my secret bench in Draper, Salt Lake City. I used to run up that mountain and enjoy the view</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/Vl84YWlAopU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/12/08/on-sharing/2016-11-21T09:31:49+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/11/21/finding-simplicity-in-travel<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/finding-simplicity-in-travel.jpg"></p>
<p>Travelling is something most people can relate to. Having travelled a lot or not, we&rsquo;ve all dreamed of doing it. Reading books, seeing movies or by surfing on the web. Yet even if we have this desire to do it, some of us still don’t do it. Time, money, obligation like a career or a family.</p>
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<p>It’s not so much about having the time than to take the time to do it. Not about having enough money than to simplifying the way I use the money I have. So instead of being the victim, taking responsibility and ownership towards what I want.</p>
<p>The notion of physical need being more important than personal action is what leads me to believe travelling is something I could never afford. Or to buy things to save the planet when not buying would be the best choice.</p>
<p>But most of the time, I put barriers to myself. I complicate what’s travelling. When at its core travelling is an act of simplicity.</p>
<h1>Dropping what I think I have</h1>
<p>When I think about it, what it cost me to go and travel. I see downsizing my belongings down to a backpack. Reducing my usual relationships to a number of zero. Getting out of my consumption impulsion, because I can’t afford the weight of each new possessions. Finally giving up on time restriction that I usually have, my routines, and obligations.</p>
<h1>Exploring thyself</h1>
<p>This simplicity while travelling especially the time I now have. Allow me to ponder, take a moment to see where I am, who I am, and who I want to become. Mapping a plan, knowing myself. Because through all the questions I ask strangers while travelling, it’s not them I question but my very own self.</p>
<p>It’s not their culture and their belief I’m confronting but mine.</p>
<h1>Doing nothing</h1>
<p>Taking the time to do nothing is something I don’t do in my everyday life. And when having a holiday, it’s easy to surrender to the urge of checking boxes by visiting many places instead of taking this time to relax in the moment.</p>
<p>Going back to simple way of using my time instead of playing against it.</p>
<p>Walking, being grateful for the food (that one I need to be reminded more than anything else), having no urge to see places, speaking with people with no other goal than chatting, taking the time to greet and smile, reading, creating, running, or even take naps.</p>
<h1>Going back home</h1>
<p>Finally, when going back home after travelling, I can’t help feeling excited to see again my people making me even more aware of the luck I have to spend time with them.</p>
<p>But also reducing my everyday consumption need when at home, knowing that life is simple. It’s I that make it complicated by creating needs that I don’t have. Saving money, possessions, and time. Just like when I travel.</p>
<p>I started making videos recently to improve my video editing skills, check them out on youtube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPjAwyDnXEuYEbeqqgM-z8A">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPjAwyDnXEuYEbeqqgM-z8A</a></p>
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<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from &ldquo;This Is The Place&rdquo;, where in July 24, 1847. The pioneers arrived in the desert of Salt Lake and declared, &ldquo;This is the place, drive on.&rdquo; and they started building what is today known as Salt Lake City</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/-lp1pekNFdQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/11/21/finding-simplicity-in-travel/2016-11-03T23:12:16+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/11/03/vulnerabitily<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/vulnerability.jpg"></p>
<p>Why is it that in periods of travelling we always end up meeting tons of people?</p>
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<p>3 November 2016 is the beginning of my trip in the USA for the first time, I basically spent the day in airports, my itinerary included 2 connections to my final destination at Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>Airport can be lonely or boring, but it was the total opposite, I’ve met more strangers (What a funny word, we are all strange in our ways) in one day than during a week or month in my usual days.</p>
<p>The first one was an Asian-German Stewart with long hair. I was checking my on-boarding ticket and told him I liked his hair, of course, there were a few seconds of awkwardness then he had this embarrassed smile and told me thank you. He gave me back my ticket and show me his fist for a fist bump. I felt cool in the eyes of the other people waiting behind.</p>
<p>Then I met a Roman guy who immigrated in 1995 in United State and who now live in Alaska. He really got me excited to visit Alaska once. At first he looked very vulgar he had his arm crossed during the whole flight, a lot of muscle and big. He tried to get some free beer with the attendant. I was reading my book “On Writing Well” and he asks me if I was going to study in the USA. He had like a lot of immigrants such an interesting story on how he came from Romania.</p>
<p>The last but not least person was a wise Indian woman who did not speak a word of English (That’s good, because so do I). So all the words I or she said would always end up with simple gaze at each other then smiles. And that was more than enough to communicate. I help her with her bag, her seatbelt, and proposed her some “Date” (It’s a fruit, can&rsquo;t find the word in English)</p>
<p>Is it my everyday behavior that doesn’t enough show openness for me to meet people?</p>
<p>The key to meeting people is in vulnerability.</p>
<p>You see, when my friend Brett picked me up, we had a big manly hug (OK… He just crashed me with all his strength). Then something incredible happened, I felt awkward and very happy at the same time.</p>
<p>Just to give you a bit of background I had the chance to meet Brett in a train to an airport, he was travelling with his wife in Paris. We had a 30 minutes small talk then we ended up exchanging contact. Then we wrote to each other for 3 years. Which led us back to this hug.</p>
<p>I felt very happy, like seeing a school best friend I haven’t seen for decades. But my first reaction was telling this joke: “Give me a hug because I’m cold, not because I like you”. And thinking back on this I think it was my default state of “Hide yourself in your funny shell to don’t show how great you feel”. Because that would mean showing weakness and vulnerability in some ways.</p>
<p>All my interactions of the day had to do with showing vulnerabilities and truth. Not just my title “Hello I’m Philippe a developer”. But showing aspect of me that are “vulnerable” or another way to say it : “authentic”.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from Seattle Airport</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/svGxu9WyTxM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/11/03/vulnerabitily/2016-09-01T00:12:16+02:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/09/01/4-stages-of-ego<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/four_stages_of_ego.jpg"></p>
<p>The four stages of ego.</p>
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<h1>1 &ndash; Dependent</h1>
<p>We all start at the same point. The genesis of our life, born from a womb we can’t move, can’t feed ourselves, and can’t survive. As the years goes by we develop physical attributes we walk, speak, learn to eat without anyone. But at the same time we develop attachment to people’s attention, our parents, brother, sister, closest people in our environment. And we see TV’s, magazines with heroes. They are strong, intelligent and known by everyone “Footballer”, “Superman”, “Beyonce”, or even genius “Elon Musk”.</p>
<p>We crave for the fame, we need to do something special. Because everybody does something incredible. We judge ourselves badly because we are not enough. We are dependent on people expectation our parents, our friends first. Or so we think.</p>
<p>Our ego needs people validation and approval.</p>
<h1>2 &ndash; Independent</h1>
<p>Then something clicks and we start being independent. We start thinking for ourselves. Being strong emotionally. Being enough for ourselves. Maybe it takes 20, 30, 40, 50 years or maybe it never happens. It’s hard to think for ourselves taking away external stimuli. I know I’m still fighting every day to get out of the dependent zone. It’s a lifelong battle.</p>
<p>Each step in that direction is a pity, but one day you woke up and look back and you are proud. You do not obsess making billions of dollars, having tons of clothes, being recognized by everyone, or with finding the one in order to find happiness. You start to know yourself being content with your own body, spirit and ultimately feeling joy hanging out with yourself.</p>
<p>Our ego slowly finds harmony and gets okay with our own presence</p>
<h1>3 &ndash; Interdependent</h1>
<p>Then you are ready to make the big leap. You shine and people can feel it. You feel good, you make people feel good around you. I know that feeling, I’ve encountered dozens of people literally shining. The French word would be “avenant” all I can think of as a translation in English is &ldquo;warm&rdquo;. We’ll get there sooner or later. Might take a bit of patience or should I say a lifelong of patience?</p>
<p>Funny how in order to be close to people we first need to take a step back. Grow, then come back and find true ally. Because alone we&rsquo;ll never get as far as together.</p>
<p>But we can only progress forward with people who are ready to do so too. Bring an independent ego with a dependent one will only make the dependent even more craving for the attention of the independent.</p>
<p>Our ego is ready to see the light in other ego, we can all shine together, without any of us requiring more lighting.</p>
<h1>4 &ndash; Nothing</h1>
<p>And then comes a time when you have the ultimate ha-ha moment. Our ego is nothing compared to the universe and we are such a small and fragile creature. I always get that feeling when vagabonding in the wild. Being at bottom of a giant mountain, seeing miles and miles a far on the peak of it. Looking at the infinity of stars or trying to see life as a 200-year-old tree.</p>
<p>We see things in perspective, we are small and our time here is so small.</p>
<p>But if ultimately we are nothing… What’s the point of this journey? That’s right, we might disappear in the next second or next decades. So what should we do?</p>
<p>Don&rsquo;t wait. Don&rsquo;t wait until you make your first million to make a difference in somebody&rsquo;s life. Clean up a neighborhood park. Be a mentor. Not every day is going to offer us a chance to save somebody&rsquo;s life, but every day offers us an opportunity to affect one. If you have something to give, give it now, because that’s all we really have &ldquo;now&rdquo;. So get in the game.</p>
<p>I haven’t written for quite some time… To be honest I felt like my reason to write was… Craving for attention. That’s what we do in today’s world, we all seek attention in a way or in another. All that Facebook, like me or like I call it temple to yourself. This is the same thing I’m doing here on that blog. Look at it, I even called it by my name. I had this epiphany a few months ago. And it stuck with me ever since. But where is the border between egoism and altruism? The act to share a so so valuable perspective without bragging. This is when I came up with the theory of evolution of ego.</p>
<p>Thank you all the kind messages I got when I wasn’t writing. If you want to connect drop me a line at <a href="&#x6d;&#x61;&#x69;&#x6c;&#116;&#111;&#58;&#x70;&#x68;&#x69;&#x6c;&#105;&#112;&#112;&#x65;&#x74;&#114;&#105;&#x6e;&#x67;&#x40;&#x67;&#x6d;&#x61;&#x69;&#x6c;&#46;&#99;&#x6f;&#109;&#x2e;">&#x70;&#x68;&#105;&#108;&#105;&#x70;&#112;&#x65;&#116;&#x72;&#105;&#110;&#x67;&#x40;&#x67;&#x6d;&#x61;&#105;&#108;&#46;&#x63;&#x6f;&#x6d;&#46;</a> You don’t need to come up with something elaborate just &ldquo;hi&rdquo; !</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture was taken during a playful afternoon in England at my first movement class by <a href="http://www.benmedder.com/">Ben Medder</a>. First classes are always a challenge for the ego, where you have to surrender old habits and perspective to be able to learn in a state of beginners.</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/3NYL8BvYuUI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/09/01/4-stages-of-ego/2016-04-02T23:26:38+02:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/04/02/why-i-suck-at-smartphones<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/why-i-suck-at-smartphones.jpg"></p>
<p>I just ended a whole month without a smartphone. My relationship with cellphones has always been an “it’s complicated” one. I had my first phone at 18, a dumb one until 22 and finally got a smartphone when my coworkers gave me a one out of despair. And even now, with this awesome piece of technology in my pocket I still don&rsquo;t have an internet plan.</p>
<p>If anyone is proud with the last iPhone, I personally used to show off to the fact that I don’t own a one. I hate smartphones.</p>
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<p>While traveling I realize a paradox. People in big cities tend to attach much more importance to their connecting device than people who live in more secluded area. Also long term travelers spend time sightseeing while short-term traveler capture moments. The correlation between smartphone use and time/distance is just wrong ! Smartphone is just a layer on the real world.</p>
<p>We can&rsquo;t always blame it on smartphones. It’s the tendency I have to watch it&rsquo;s screen rather than my friend’s eyes when I’m at a dinner. It’s pretty hard nowadays to just be alone, I am so uncomfortable with myself. I wasn’t able few years ago to just shut everything and speak with myself. No earphone, no computer, no smartphone, no screen, me and me alone. Reflecting internally, and taking the time to ask big questions.</p>
<p>At the end. It’s not about denying smartphones. It’s about consciousness and mindfulness. When I sit on a table with or without a device I can still be a million miles away in my head OR be present and here with the people around me. I also can&rsquo;t deny how many opportunities of bounding to people all over the world smartphone open.</p>
<p>Smartphone I love you, it’s just my self-control that I hate.</p>
<p>Ps: Freshly quoted from one of my emails today, “Tonight, I have my phone backkkkk!&#8221;</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from UK. I think it was near Brighton</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/K6G4U6YatrI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/04/02/why-i-suck-at-smartphones/2016-03-13T18:06:06+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/03/13/dont-be-fearless<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/dont_be_fearless.jpg"></p>
<p>Last night, I read &ldquo;The End of The Night&rdquo; a book about light pollution from artificial lighting. While reading it I remember a little story from my childhood. My old brother had some friends over for the night and they were watching a horror movie. It was way too scary and I wanted to go to sleep but the corridor was dark. I asked my brother to come with me but he and his friends made fun of me. I ended up with two choices, keep watching the horror movie or go into the dark, full of my imaginary bogeyman.</p>
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<h1>I Will Never Be Fearless</h1>
<p>I heard that all the time. Be fearless. Like nothing can stop you. Live your life to the fullest and what if I’m full of fear? Sorry but I am. I’m afraid. Afraid of so many things. Will my English be good enough? I am good enough? Can I do it?</p>
<p>There are two types of fear.</p>
<ul>
<li>Biological fear, it’s the one that helps us survive millions of years, that tell us to run in front of a predator and also trigger an automated step back when my mum eyebrow goes angry.</li>
<li>Rational fear, it’s the one we inflict to ourselves when we are afraid of speaking in public, basically everything we are afraid of doing when it won’t have survival consequences and mostly fear based on education from society.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here I’m speaking about the rational one. So please don’t try to beat the fear from falling from 20 meters high.</p>
<h1>Fear That Stop You</h1>
<p>Your heart pound, there&rsquo;s a butterfly in your stomach. You can feel it right? The Fear. I do too. Probably more than everyone else, at least that’s what everyone thinks ! I agree, it sucks. So I stay here waiting for the right moment, I make excuses and soon enough follow avoidance, procrastination and insecurity. I feel like I stop living when I don’t confront my fears. We are born afraid of darkness. Light is the new norm but back in the day people had gaslight which was less brighter than today light. Even before we had fire light and at the start we had stars and simply moon reflection. What I mean is, even physically we don’t know darkness, we are born in the light. Look I’m typing in front of a screen lighted by led.
I’ve never enjoyed a sky full of stars in total darkness, it’s not too late. I wasn’t born knowing how to face my fears, it’s not too late. Be hopeful don’t stop here because you hadn’t done it, it’s not too late.</p>
<h1>Fear Push You Forward</h1>
<p>If I want to live fully. I should be scared as shit of life ! Your heart should be full of doubt and fear but still taking that backpack and travelling. Still going to the unknown and confront those fears. So instead of being fearless which is totally impossible. Embrace your darkness, know yourself, your strength, your weakness, your dream, and YOUR FEAR.</p>
<p>Embrace fear. Know fear. Know that fear only is a cycle. Someday you are scared as shit then the next day you feel relieved of such a burden, nothing can stop the monster in you. Like a night which is always followed by a day. Like a yin-yang kind of thing. Nothing is permanent, everything changes, so do I.</p>
<p>Fear only exists if love exists both can’t be separate in your life. Nobody is fearless, fight your today fear will only bring bigger fear to destroy. Sometimes you’ll have to face the same fear over and over. Or being stuck in a fake artificial light (your comfort zone) away from darkness. Fear is intimidating, yet instead of having a feeling of impossible let’s be inspired, motivated even excited by it. The more I’ll face it the more I expect him to come. Eventually I can’t wait for the next day to bring his fears.</p>
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<p>Embrace darkness. Like bane be moulded by your fear. You’ll be a full human when you get out of your fear and let your fear go because it belong to nothing more than your head.</p>
<h1>Fear Keeps You Out of Your Comfort Zone</h1>
<p>The moment you take your friends for granted you are doomed. Be afraid to loose them. Last night I was taking the tramway to go back home and saw someone hit at by a car. Let’s not take life for granted. Hades can show up at anytime.</p>
<p>I wish you fear in your life a lot of it and depression too. Sounds mean? But it’s out of love. It makes us grow. Fear is an opportunity, an opportunity to evolve and grow. In fact this post was at first just an entry in my journal that I rewrote. Writing down things really helps even if I’m scared of how people will react. Might be helpful to someone else. You never know.</p>
<p>Best fears in your journey.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture was taken during a run session. Just ended the half marathon for the first time last week, step by step conquering my fears.</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/UZWIgP0ju7E" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/03/13/dont-be-fearless/2016-01-23T22:47:01+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/01/23/step-back<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/step_back.jpg"></p>
<p>So it’s saturday night and I’m doing nothing. Like absolutely nothing. At first I was a bit empty. Like nothing is going on tonight come on I’m 23. Ain&rsquo;t I suppose to have the time of my life for god sake.</p>
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<h1>step back</h1>
<p>It’s like a painting, if I watch it closely i’ll only see a bunch of color or maybe even a single color. But if I step back I can see the whole beauty of it.</p>
<p>So when the time come and I feel like i’m not having the time of my life. Step back and see the whole painting. On my day, my life, i’m having it. The time of my life. This moment, everything that did and do happen is awesome.</p>
<p>So now instead of stepping back from a painting what if I step back from me?</p>
<p>Because the beautiful painting I want to see is actually nobody else than me. I remember this week being upset because I was going to get in the train. When the guy just ahead of me was stepping in. He then stop moving instead of going further so people can go inside too (Please tell me that annoy you too !)</p>
<p>But that’s trying to change someone I have no direct control over. I’m trying to change something outside. But reflecting back the guy who was actually following me into the train got in the same situation as I because I was also stopping once i&rsquo;m in the train.</p>
<p>Step back and see myself as a third person because at the end that’s the thing I can change the most.</p>
<p>Now that I have step back I can judge myself according to my own belief. Would I try to be friend with myself? Would I like the painting i’m seeing (me in case you haven’t follow).</p>
<p>Once I find myself. The self I believe is good then maybe… Just maybe&hellip; I will be able to change mankind to… Kind man</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is a wall painting took at Bilbao in Spain. Imaging you zooming in the front of the shoe only. Way less beautiful, right?</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/LkbgHViPhZE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/01/23/step-back/2016-01-17T14:24:32+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/01/17/vision-and-goal-at-lululemon<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/vision-and-goals.jpg"></p>
<p>Two days ago I had the opportunity to attempt the vision and goals workshop at Lululemon.</p>
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<h1>Vision and goal</h1>
<p>Basically, you get to hangout with a lot of people who want to be a better version of themselves, you get some time to discover what’s important to you, all that in 2 hours ! They provide a set of exercices to make:</p>
<ul>
<li>You write the 8 first values that come to your mind that define you.</li>
<li>Mark them from a scale to 0 to 10 to see how driven by them you are and where you need to refocus.</li>
<li>List all the things you want and the things you don’t want in your life.</li>
<li>Visualize a day in 10 years from now with a guided meditation (which i really liked)</li>
<li>Set career, health and personal goal</li>
<li>Set goals in 10, 5 and 1 year from now</li>
</ul>
<p>So the first part vision is to make you visualize what you want while the second part are the triggers of your imagination !</p>
<p>So overall it was great. Even though I find it difficult speaking in front of so many people (I love speaking one on one but group dynamics is really something I need to work on). I would have preferred to be grouped as pair. Which would had create personal connexion between people and more involved. (It&rsquo;s also easier to confess dreams to one that to a whole assembly)</p>
<p>To find out more check the Lululemon blog
<a href="http://blog.lululemon.com/vision-goals-why-we-love-them-and-how-to-get-started/">http://blog.lululemon.com/vision-goals-why-we-love-them-and-how-to-get-started/</a></p>
<h1>What happened to me</h1>
<p>I had one big epiphany during the visualization. So here I was trying to visualize the 10 year older me. At first I saw&hellip; NOTHING… But then they ask us the question &ldquo;How do you feel in that 10 years from now day?”. My first answer was of course: Happy. Then as my eyes were close I changed the feeling from happy to peaceful.</p>
<p>Peaceful to me is the ability to keep calm and serene as the flow of moments pass. Being able to remain like water, embracing what happen and evolve to a form while still being water. Like the water shape to adapt to his context. Be me in every context or something like this (I admit it is kind of a weird concept)</p>
<p>So I want to be peaceful in 10 years from now. But as I was thinking about this something else came up, something BIG. <strong><em>Peace is already in me</em></strong>, somewhere. It won’t come from outside like having a house, money, traveling, clothes, friend, spouse. But from inside. All I need is making it blossom more and more until it became the default state. Don’t get me wrong those things are still nice to have but they are not mandatory to happiness and inne peace.</p>
<p>So what action will I do to progress toward inner peace?</p>
<ul>
<li>To the question &ldquo;how are you&rdquo; i’ll answer : “I am happy and peaceful”. This idea is inspired by Meng (<a href="http://www.mengstupiditis.com/2011/10/how-am-i-i-am-happy-and-at-peace.html">http://www.mengstupiditis.com/2011/10/how-am-i-i-am-happy-and-at-peace.html</a>)</li>
<li>Every morning i’ll practice visualizing me reacting calm to “bad” stimulus</li>
</ul>
<p>The 10 year vision is still cloudy or i’m too afraid to face it. All I can imagine is being a martial art teacher and help people having a better health.</p>
<p>My 1 year goal are pretty easy to see. I’ll be feeling the world on my bike and make a 60 seconds handstand in a year.</p>
<p>All that being said, existentialism is a dangerous thing, I need to find a balance in my thinking and action taking. Back to work, spanish podcast and handstand training time !</p>
<p>PS: That was not a sponsored post, I just love Lululemon&rsquo;s culture</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from another Lululemon event running near les quais de seine in Paris</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/8UepXvh-c8w" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/01/17/vision-and-goal-at-lululemon/2016-01-10T16:25:33+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/01/10/honesty<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/value-transparence.jpg"></p>
<blockquote><p>Write down what you STAND FOR on this planet. Find it, breathe it, live it. If you were to die tomorrow you would know that this body, this life was not in vain as you stood for this purpose through all obstacles. You stood ALL IN on life.</p></blockquote>
<p>This is part of my manifesto, values that I follow. Somewhere I can go to and refer in case I&rsquo;m having trouble making decisions.</p>
<p>The first value is: <strong><em>Be Brutally Honest</em></strong></p>
<ol>
<li>To me, I&rsquo;ll be courageous enough to live a life true to myself, not the life others expect of me</li>
<li>To others, I&rsquo;ll strive for an open communication by listening, understanding only then responding with honesty</li>
<li>In action, I&rsquo;ll act my words and live my acts</li>
</ol>
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<h1>To me, I&rsquo;ll be courageous enough to live a life true to myself, not the life others expect of me</h1>
<p>What does it mean to be honest, real or true? True, true to myself first of all. My desires, my goals and what I really want out of this life, my life.</p>
<p>How many time I have been delusional about a situation? Hoping for the best without taking the actions to change the output. Instead taking a passive stance, waiting to see what will happen. It&rsquo;s so much easier to let thing happen. From the moment we are born until being a young adult, every things has been taken care of.</p>
<p>For most of us the first 20 years are pretty set from the beginning. Or what I mean is it doesn&rsquo;t count on us being responsible for our lives but rather our parents or whoever is responsible for us. Life will eventually flow. But then we discover a lot of things we were protected from. Like Buddha who lived peacefully in his secular place and then discover sickness, old age and death.</p>
<p>In a much smaller way for us. That moment is generally the end of school, but school doesn&rsquo;t teach us much about love, financial independence, confidence, social skills, but certainly a lot about how to be a job and fit to society. Find ONE job and keep there until retirement so we can finally take the time to do what we want.</p>
<p>So how does the brutally come from? Brutally because it takes a lot of guts to confront facts, it&rsquo;s never easy. Especially since I am born super lucky in a rich country. I shouldn&rsquo;t have anything to complain about, there&rsquo;s no bomb dropping next to my house, I have so much water that I can pee in it, and enough food to pick and refuse some of it. But being brutally honest, is it a reason to not live this life to the fullest and accept a &ldquo;safe&rdquo; life? There will be no replay to this life. So I will make the most I can of it.</p>
<blockquote><p>A free man is free to acknowledge his fears, without hiding them, or hiding from them. &ndash; The way of the superior man</p></blockquote>
<p>Most of the time it&rsquo;s social fear (and not biological one) that stop me from doing what I want. Acknowledge the fear, face it, confront it, live at his edge, then be brutal to fear, push it. Fear will never go away. I&rsquo;ll always have to fight it back. It&rsquo;s a life long war, an everyday battle. Like talking to a stranger, speaking in public, going on adventures. Basically getting in a position where I can fail will make me anxious. Even if I&rsquo;ve done it before, it&rsquo;s just less here or I simply know better how to deal with it.</p>
<blockquote><p>Build YOUR dream even if you get sidetracked helping others build theirs. Never lose sight of what YOU want. NEVER give up.</p></blockquote>
<p>I can&rsquo;t blame people for me taking the wrong direction. When facing problem do not delay them and act upfront to find a solution instead of waiting for a sign from destiny. Be responsible, I can&rsquo;t control everything that happen but I&rsquo;m in full control of how I react.</p>
<h1>To others, I&rsquo;ll strive for an open communication by listening, understanding only then responding with honesty</h1>
<p>The previous part was about being true to my inner me. But on the outer side authenticity apply aswell.</p>
<p>Tough things is: Be honest with someone, even when I know it may hurt. I mean not angry honest. I mean sincere, sensitive honest. In my view, I owe it to the person. Have a frank conversation about the other person&rsquo;s shortcomings or mine and how it impact me, tell them how I feel and do it as early as possible.</p>
<p>The benefit is that I don&rsquo;t have to think so much about what previous lie I did say. It become less of a burden overtime. It&rsquo;s hard to be honest but overall the calm in my mind is much more rewarding. Not having to think about what I said before to X to be congruent with my past lie. Not having to make 3 hours of assumptions. After a few experiment I see people reacting much better to honesty than I hoped. People are though. The ones who react in a bad way are the one who feel insecure and can&rsquo;t handle being wrong often. That also filter people I don&rsquo;t want to hang out with.</p>
<p>I also know something is wrong if I have to lie about it. Everything I do, every choices I make, I want to be proud or at least have no fear of telling them. Maybe my choices will be the wrong decision but I don&rsquo;t want to have to hide them. When I know my life ain&rsquo;t got no secrets I&rsquo;ll be more likely to make morally good decision</p>
<p>I can see a few cases where the full transparency guidelines don&rsquo;t apply. Most obvious example is if someone tell me to keep a secret, I will.</p>
<h1>In action, I&rsquo;ll act my words and live my acts</h1>
<p>Honesty also mean not saying I&rsquo;ll do something and not doing it. Saying i&rsquo;ll introduce someone to someone, I often found a pattern where I keep saying &ldquo;Oh you have to read this&rdquo;. Then I never lend the book. Everytime I&rsquo;m conscious I&rsquo;m doing that I popup evernote or calendar and add a note to remind me to do it. Do what you promise. Follow up with my words, that way i&rsquo;ll be more aware of what I say. Another benefit is I won&rsquo;t commit to things I&rsquo;m not going to do. Or be brutally honest and tell people I don&rsquo;t want to do it. But don&rsquo;t leave people wondering what will happen next.</p>
<p>Another area where it applies is being late, nowadays nobody show up on time and that&rsquo;s crazy ! Everytime someone is late I feel like he is saying my time is more precious than yours. I can make you wait for me. And the lost, what a lost ! It&rsquo;s linear, imagine a group of 7 if one of them make the rest wait 10 minutes it&rsquo;s 60 minutes lost. The more i&rsquo;m on time the more people are going to be on time because they know i&rsquo;ll be on time. But just in case always have a book ready when I wait</p>
<blockquote><p>To me ultimately martial arts means honestly expressing yourself. &ndash; Bruce lee</p></blockquote>
<p>What Bruce Lee wanted to say through this quote is that it&rsquo;s easy to do fancy martial arts move but to tell the truth is much more harder. To me it mean to don&rsquo;t make my life more shinier than it really is just to brag, be humble and not being the man who think he knows everything. Always be happy to be wrong and recognize it. I know how hard it is to step back from things that I have previously said. It&rsquo;s considerate as a sign of psychological disorder to change your mind, &ldquo;unstable&rdquo;, &ldquo;conflictual&rdquo;. But it&rsquo;s better being wrong and realizing it than being wrong and keeping your position just to maintain congruency with my past words or acts. Take my articles, I could go back and argue with a lot of them. So it makes me incongruent with my past unless I don&rsquo;t consider it as <em>my past</em> but simply <em>past</em>. An older version of me which is outdated. Would I be mad for a program bugs that were fix long ago ? No. But I would be if they were unfix bugs</p>
<p>Live my acts, that&rsquo;s taking full responsibility for previous acts. Fight for my words, but happily admit being wrong with no ego. Past will always be here. I harm people sometimes, I ain&rsquo;t proud of stuff. But be brutal and confront myself. Live your past, carry it, there&rsquo;s no escaping. Ultimately it&rsquo;s my choice to make it more heavier than it is or not&hellip;</p>
<h1>Final words</h1>
<p>I know this value has to be the first when I read the 7 habits of highly effective people. The first word that did come to mind was authenticity. Even though I knew it was it, it still took me 3 months to write it and have the courage to post. I guess I&rsquo;ve consciously delayed the writing of this value for so long for a reason. I am afraid of the consequences that this value will have to my life when I completely adopt it. I know i&rsquo;m still not totally living by honesty. The power of engagement will help me since I made a public announcement about it. When I visualize what qualities I want people to remember me for&hellip; I hope they will see me as an honest dude who asked the right question for their growth.</p>
<p>Nowadays I&rsquo;ll try my best to live this value <strong><em>Be Brutally Honest</em></strong>.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from the hitchhiking gathering near Valence in France, the little river accessible on a 30 seconds foot walk right behind a lovely bamboo forest sweet time.</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/8lBW5hvQaoU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2016/01/10/honesty/2015-12-30T12:23:56+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/12/30/reflection<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/2015-reflection.jpg"></p>
<p>2015 is almost over and I had some great epiphany during this year. I like to take some time to reflect every 3-6 month with myself, <strong>MY LIFE</strong> (and not other people vision on life). Check what have done lately, I&rsquo;m I doing the things that I must do instead of what I should do? <a href="https://vimeo.com/120355373">The Importance of Doing What You Love by Elle Luna</a></p>
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<p>So I opened up my calendar to see what were my appointments</p>
<ul>
<li>The product I&rsquo;m developing at <a href="http://www.plezi.co/">plezi</a> got release, after one year of work. I can&rsquo;t help but feeling proud about it</li>
<li>I asked for a raise. Sometimes you just have to have the gut to ask</li>
<li>I said yes to a spontaneous road trip, which end up leading to Etretat and sleeping on a hill. Everyone has things to do, but I feel like life will only get more busier</li>
<li>I accomplish my first year of shiatsu and expanded my perception on eastern medicine.</li>
<li>I tried to fast during 7 days. <a href="http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/09/12/experience-do-not-eat-for-a-week/">Experience: Do Not Eat For A Week</a></li>
<li>I walked Camino de Santiago, also got there by hitchhiking from Paris</li>
<li>I deepen my relationship with my friends and I&rsquo;m happy to call 3 person on this universe that way. They make me a little more courageous and compassionate. Thank you</li>
</ul>
<p>It&rsquo;s also the year have been reading the most. It&rsquo;s funny how my reading have been following my grow during the year. All of this did not happen in a single day, and it&rsquo;s awesome seeing who I was a year before and who I am today.</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s the light side, and it&rsquo;s fairly easy to brag about it. But on the dark side I can&rsquo;t count how many things didn&rsquo;t work this year. But the question I should ask myself is do I like my life? If not remove what makes me unhappy. Because it only takes one success to make all those experiences worth</p>
<p>That was a lot of I. Your turn:</p>
<ul>
<li>Reflect on your last year and celebrate achievements then share them with whoever you want</li>
<li>Ask yourself what makes you unhappy and remove it this year</li>
</ul>
<p>Ps: I just wrote a <a href="http://philippetring.fr/now">now</a> page which list what i&rsquo;m up to. Where is my focus, <a href="http://philippetring.fr/now">check it out</a>.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from the most beautiful city on earth, Paris ! Near les quais de la Seine</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/zWEKRZh2TkU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/12/30/reflection/2015-11-12T19:21:25+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/12/face-writing-block<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/face-writing-block.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> How to face writing block? </strong></p>
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<p>I missed yesterday OPAB. Usually when I miss something. I stop, instead of being persistant. That&rsquo;s funny because the day before I was super in the flow for writing. I don&rsquo;t know how it feel from the exterior but creating everyday is crazily hard. You have to always push yourself and deny every good excuse that come your way (being tired, don&rsquo;t having the time).</p>
<p>And one of my block was that I was only doing all my challenges for myself. So if I don&rsquo;t write who cares really? Nobody knew. But now with the blog every one might.</p>
<p>So how can I prevent failling? I can&rsquo;t it will eventually happen. But I can at least minimize the amount of energy it takes me to start writing.</p>
<p>It mean 2 things for now. Always having a pen and some paper (I want to buy a &ldquo;moleskine&rdquo; really badly haha). And having my computer ready to write every time.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from a beach in Montpellier. That is creativity !</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/7FxfaxS75QU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/12/face-writing-block/2015-11-10T11:38:41+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/10/value-one<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/value-relationship.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> Values one: Why do I breath? </strong></p>
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<p>I can&rsquo;t wait to start this article. I am so excited to start writing about it. I was literally in the transport with no paper left and tons of ideas were flowing through me. Think i&rsquo;m also half wasted which hasn&rsquo;t happen for years. Just to warn you when i&rsquo;m drunk I tend to tell everybody I love that I do love them (my little sister and mother just had me hugging them for quite a while&hellip; With all my after sport session odor of course).</p>
<p>Before start I need to share 2 things&hellip; No 3 things. I had training (that&rsquo;s one), got myself beat a few times as usual much respect to all my sparing partners and it was incredible. Two we had a few drink but more important a lot of laugh (I couldn&rsquo;t stop smiling during my one hour of commute back home). Three.. I forgot 3 might come back might not.</p>
<p>That being said after all my previous speech on happiness I think I have a pretty good answer to what&rsquo;s happiness to me. <strong>It&rsquo;s building long lasting relationship with people I do care about</strong>. Let them teach me a lot of thing and do my best to have a positive impact on them. It&rsquo;s making them smile and share no&hellip; SHARE moment with them. Lately i&rsquo;m pretty introverted. I tend to focus on myself, &ldquo;be a better version of me&rdquo;. But for who? For me. And that&rsquo;s obviously not working. My mood and attitude got lower. I&rsquo;m the best me only when i&rsquo;m with those people who move me. Those people I hate but also love.</p>
<p>Some of them are ALWAYS ******** late, some are messy as crazy. But I still love being with them. And so happy to see them when the last time have seen them was only 2 weeks ago. Hope they will recognize themselves !</p>
<p>I do remember number three !! Happiness, I was so happy commuting back home, I took a bicycle at the last km. And I haven&rsquo;t feel that great biking since&hellip; Going on my Paris to London on a bike trip. I was aware of the wind, my legs and foot pushing the bike, I was here not going from point A to B just here, living the moment. I am so use to forget about my journey, only focussing on my destination that I&rsquo;m always skipping the now. Which is as important as the moment I arrive at the point B.</p>
<p>So what&rsquo;s my first value? What is the first thing I want to stand for in my life? <strong>Grow as an independent being and help people I care about grow</strong>. My memory will disappear soon enough after my last breath, my money won&rsquo;t serve me anymore, my stuff won&rsquo;t last forever but if I did exist for those few people I&rsquo;ll be done here. I might not change the world but I do hope I&rsquo;ll change their world.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Talking about stuff, one of the fine lady at the dojo make me realize how much have changed since she knows me (2 years ago). I was a stuff oriented guy, always with a new dress. Now I only have 2 pants and 3 t-shirts, is it good? Probably not for everybody but for me at this moment it is. And that&rsquo;s what matter, living on my belief. Picture is me 2 years ago</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/4J0F79Tx9Pc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/10/value-one/2015-11-09T17:05:08+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/09/values<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/values.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> On happiness? part 2 </strong></p>
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<p>Had no problem today so i&rsquo;ll just continue on my questioning on happiness. Last time I said happiness is already in me. Maybe all I need to do is let it express itself? My mum gave me a mini handy book about buddhism few weeks ago. After my research it seems that we need to drop everything or at least this is the goal as a buddhist. (I might miss interpret i&rsquo;m far from an theologist on buddhism).</p>
<p>But looking to have no attachment material and/or emotional we can&rsquo;t loose right? We can&rsquo;t be sad because we already have nothing? But a life with no attachment is it really a life?</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s one of the thing that do scare me. Since I live on nothing today (I&rsquo;m talking about money / cost of life) it&rsquo;s easy to go on adventure with nothing. But will I have the courage to drop my comfy flat once I get use to it? I read a experiment in &ldquo;Stumbling on Happiness&rdquo;. People were offered 60k first year then 50k then 40k OR 30k then 40k then 50k. People always choose the second option regardless of the obvious gain in money to take the first choice.</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s probably also related to the fact that we want to see progress in our lives and can&rsquo;t stand to be demolish in a way or another.</p>
<p>But at the same time if I decide to attache myself to nothing and nobody I&rsquo;ll get jealous about other people possession, I want the last iPhone too ! So I need to neglect other people but it&rsquo;s so human to compare me / my possession with other people. Think people who reach that state, being egoless non toxic and self confident must have something else. A belief that what they do is right. and since i&rsquo;m not sure my way is the right way i&rsquo;m stuck.</p>
<p>What I need to work on to let my happiness blossom is my believe, not in god but what do I believe my values are. So instead of comparing myself with other I&rsquo;ll be able to compare myself with my values. I have few ideas for my values. But had never took the time to write about it properly.</p>
<p>I like the way this challenge make me wonder about life. Really, don&rsquo;t know if what I say is accurate or even make sense but&hellip; Yeah whatever.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is a dog name Tao I had the opportunity to be licked by him at the hitchgathering this year.</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/udgmYuvkFwk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/09/values/2015-11-08T19:25:51+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/08/things-i-can-do-when-bored<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/to-do-when-bored.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> What can I do when i&rsquo;m bored? </strong></p>
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<p>That&rsquo;s pretty funny given all the things I can do in life that we achieve being in a state of bored no? Is being bored something that animals feel or only humans? Ok let&rsquo;s come up with 10 things I can do.</p>
<ol>
<li>Write anything on anything. You never know what you might come up with</li>
<li>Send a message to somebody you want to meet. Or better call an old acquaintance</li>
<li>Take some time to breathe</li>
<li>Make a to do of what I need to do before leaving</li>
<li>Run / exercice</li>
<li>Read</li>
<li>Clean my room / organize my stuff. I think the act of organizing physically something have the same effect on your mind somehow !</li>
<li>Wow it start to be hard after 7&hellip; Cook? (I usually never cook)</li>
<li>OH I HAVE A GOOD ONE ! Ask myself if i&rsquo;m heading to the right direction for my life.</li>
<li>Do something, anything but do something.</li>
</ol>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is the red moon of this yearg</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/-MHJZdUJAug" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/08/things-i-can-do-when-bored/2015-11-07T18:39:51+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/07/how-to-invent-problem<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/how-to-invent-problem.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> How to invent problem? </strong></p>
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<p>How am I suppose to find a solution to nothing. My problem of the day is that I had no problem. (huhu)</p>
<p>Think that&rsquo;s a good reminder that people who looks for trouble can always find some. But honestly today have been great. Had a yoga session at Lululemon (This company is great) and it was free ! Then I walked back home exploring streets of Paris I&rsquo;ve never seen before. Family launch, few videos, few mails and some paper I had to fill. Then at night I run almost an hour to see an old friend of mine back from London. Played some board game like a child and met a lot of interesting people.</p>
<p>Basically i&rsquo;ve learn a lot today ! Will I remember that day as a great day? Maybe if I read this article one day who knows</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture was taken near New Haven in UK while waiting for the boat. I can still remember the wild blackberry taste I had miam !</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/uIg2IWFBWhc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/07/how-to-invent-problem/2015-11-06T13:24:00+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/06/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-school<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-school.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> How to make the most out of school? </strong></p>
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<p>Guess I&rsquo;ve done nothing at school today, I procrastinate taking everything in my reach to don&rsquo;t work. So what can I do to make the most of this time I have to spend here?</p>
<p>Start a business on the side. To create wealth or value as passive income, visibility, sharpens skill that will matter lately. But knowing that everything can be learn. Choosing the right field to invest my time on is blocking me: paradox of choice, having too much abundance make me stuck. Pick something whatever and do something.</p>
<p>Does everything I learn need to be useful thought? I know not but I can&rsquo;t stop blaming myself not being &ldquo;productive&rdquo;. Yesterday I spoke about happiness and how the Bhutan check for growth in happiness. <strong>With mathematics started the era of numbers when older people use to have different metrics</strong>. Without number, productivity, marks and other metrics life must have been so different. We want proof that it works before starting anything nowadays (This apply so much to me, HOLY MOLLY !)</p>
<p>But I&rsquo;m going off topic here, back to school. (I actually smiled when writing this haha). Skills and career out. I think school is before everything else the best time to connect to people, thing that I don&rsquo;t do enough. Proof, I&rsquo;m here typing on a keyboard talking to nobody but myself while I could be exchanging with people made of blood and heart next to me.</p>
<p>Maybe I focus way too much on myself. Maybe I should change the challenge from &ldquo;fix one problem I have during my day&rdquo; to &ldquo;help someone fix his problem&rdquo;? But who am I to help someone. People didn&rsquo;t ask for anything. But I do ask myself for help right here.</p>
<p>Another thing is that I focus too much on the future me. I should relax&hellip; No I&rsquo;ll relax. There is no rush for me to start traveling I want everything and right now. Why the rush? Put your belt and enjoy your journey through school. I know lot of people miss that time after it&rsquo;s over.</p>
<p>Lastly to make the most out of school I shouldn&rsquo;t focus on the reward (the degree). But on what I&rsquo;m learning. And what do I learn here? The degree do not mean I made it, right? Take the number to change, how many of us will have no suitable jobs? What I learn at school is simply to learn for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>Philippe, student of life hopefully I&rsquo;ll never drop out.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is the school from the village I used to live back in Bangladesh</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/NfFg5xSQ7xY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/06/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-school/2015-11-05T15:16:24+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/05/how-to-be-happy<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/how-to-be-happy.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> How to be happy? </strong></p>
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<p>Ok, how should I start that hard question it might seem too optimist to answer this question for everyone so I&rsquo;ll try to solve it for me. What&rsquo;s happiness? Is it me watching a youtube video, eating awesome food, laughing hard with my friend, having sex, being rich? All that is pleasure for sure and does bring happiness for a short instant but in the long term wont bring sustainable source of happiness. What&rsquo;s the common denominator for all of these things? They come from outer world instead of my inner self. Does eating more or that will make me forever happy? Having multiple partner for intercourse, a higher salary, all those numbers. I heard Bhutan is calculating happiness grow in their country. I wonder how they do that.</p>
<p>In the old time when math doesn&rsquo;t exists life must be so much different. We are now numbers everywhere. Of like, share, salary&hellip; So if I follow the hypothesis that happiness come from inside and not outside. How can it be ?</p>
<h1>How can I speak about happiness without speaking about sadness? One doesn&rsquo;t exists without the other.</h1>
<p>If happiness cannot exists without sadness then two solutions come to my mind.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I can only be happy if someone else is sad ?</p></li>
<li><p>I can only be happy for a determined amount of time until sadness come back to me.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I don&rsquo;t like the first option because I hope everybody can be happy (shameless way to put it out of the way haha).</p>
<p>If happiness and sadness are both natural state. It make me realize that being happy is already a possibility in me. If that&rsquo;s the case how can I be more happy than sad and more importantly recover from sadness to be back to a happy state? Well I have no clue but right now I want to go to the dojo and practice martial art.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from Etretat in the morning. Funny that i&rsquo;m searching for complex reason about happiness when maybe sustainable happiness is achievable simply by bringing attention to one’s breath.</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/LzZ8ynuGvIg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/05/how-to-be-happy/2015-11-04T17:45:58+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/04/how-much-money-is-enough<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/how-much-money-is-enough.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: <strong> How much money do I need to live? </strong></p>
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<p>I&rsquo;m starting to realize that in a few months I won&rsquo;t hang out in Gobelins anymore (My school). Will I miss it? Probably not. I&rsquo;m bored and can&rsquo;t wait for what&rsquo;s next. But what&rsquo;s next? I have no clue. I&rsquo;m searching for path, possibilities. The most appealing one is to travel around the world like a hobo. But it&rsquo;s also the scariest one. So I&rsquo;m looking for a job and I start asking myself what&rsquo;s a good job? I see plenty of my developer friend who after a few months in a well paying job stop it to pursue an uncertain path to grow a business and i&rsquo;m very impress by them. So money is not the problem, people don&rsquo;t want to be rich we want the possibilities that offer money.</p>
<p>At 2k money I can live more than enough. So here&rsquo;s my number, how can I make it for the least amount of time so I can enjoy life the rest. Here&rsquo;s one of adult life goal, having 2k of income each month for the less amount of work (Work: Time I dislike the use of).</p>
<p>This lead naturally to tomorrow problem. How do I get happy?</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture are my feet after a cloudy day of hiking in the mountain of Spain.</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/3qncFvwyYLc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/04/how-much-money-is-enough/2015-11-03T17:02:35+01:00http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/03/respond-to-violence<p><img class="center" src="http://philippetring.fr/images/violence.jpg"></p>
<p>This article is a part of my 30 days challenge &ldquo;One Problem A Day&rdquo;. Where I have to solve a problem I have through my day. Today: How to respond to violence?</p>
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<p>People in my class bought some Nerf (Plastic gun) to battle in the classroom. Then for fun one of them aimed his gun toward me&hellip;</p>
<p>Edward, a Bagua (Form of Tai Chi) practicer once told me there&rsquo;s 3 way to react from an aggression:</p>
<ol>
<li>Freeze. It can be because you are afraid but also simply because you hope the predator won&rsquo;t see you like a butterfly or ostrich</li>
<li>Flight. Run, as fast as you can avoid, dodge the threat !</li>
<li>Fight. Put your arms up and be brave</li>
</ol>
<p>Guess what I did in front of this Nerf pointing at me? Did I fight, flight or freeze? I freeze, put my hands up to hide my face and did nothing else hoping he&rsquo;ll not shoot. Ok he was my friend and I knew nothing so bad would happen.</p>
<p>Another time I was biking in Paris when a car hit me at slow speed but I catch myself and keep rolling. The man get out of his car and start yelling at me. In my head confident in my few years of martial art training I thought he deserved a lesson but I kept rolling and I&rsquo;m very happy I did.</p>
<p>So what&rsquo;s the point of all my practice in the dojo? Being ashamed of myself because I can&rsquo;t respond to violence? I think it&rsquo;s worth it for me to freeze and run even if I have a pretty good chance to win a fight. First harming someone doesn&rsquo;t feel good, I can live with a bit of shame I&rsquo;d rather not break anything. I also preserved the good relationship I have with my friend. I think the only time I&rsquo;ll need my martial art skill is to fight for someone else or my life. It&rsquo;s the last choice and there&rsquo;s nothing to be ashamed if you run or lower your head.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Picture is from the top of a castle in India</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TringPhilippeBlog/~4/qPenzipRmZ0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://philippetring.fr/blog/2015/11/03/respond-to-violence/